“How do you feel?” he asks, taking a tentative step towards me. My heart trips in my chest as his glacier eyes drink me in. I feel utterly bare when he looks at me, that’s how I feel.

“That’s a loaded question, Gabe. One I’m not sure how to answer.”

“Try. I need to know, Fern. I need to know you don’t fucking hate me. Though I wouldn’t blame you if you did. I fucking marked you…”

“Why did you do it?”

“I couldn’t help it,” he says, this time avoiding my gaze.

He’s hiding something. He’s not as honest as Tillan believes him to be and I want to know why. “I don’t believe that’s the only reason.”

“It’s the truth. I couldn’t stop myself.”

I shake my head. “Stop lying. Tell me why you marked me, Gabe. I’ve already forgiven you for it. Now, I wish to understand.”

“You’ve forgiven me for giving you a death sentence?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because it’s like punishing a dog for biting someone when they’re in pain. I believe a part of you couldn’t help yourself, but I also believe there’s more to it than that.” I stare at him, not breaking eye contact.

Gabe scrapes a hand over his face, stepping away from me. “I can see you take no prisoners, Fern. That will of steel you have. When I watched you with that mother… the way you fought for the baby even when you knew it was helpless. I know Ether appreciates that about you, fighting for what you believe in, your strength. You and he are very alike.”

“You’re changing the subject, Gabe. Tell me what I need to know,” I demand, closing the gap between us. I do not feel even a little bit unwell and it makes me bold.

He laughs bitterly, swiping a hand over his face. “Damn it, Fern. I was only going to touch you briefly. Just like Mihr and Gabe had. After all that time, I just wanted to feel you, hold you. Then you placed your hand over mine.” He pauses.

“Go on,” I say.

“I couldn’t move. I knew what was happening, I knew the danger, but I couldn’t pull away. Life forgive me, I didn’t want to. Before, when I took that poor baby’s life, you looked at me in fear and it damn near killed me. I stayed away for years after that encounter. Then Lissandra spoke with Ether, she told us about the prophecy. She gave him the stone and when we got the chance, we left to find Clan Vitae’s missing daughter. When we landed in your garden, I felt the same pull. Then I saw you looking out of your window. I was in shock. The girl who was hidden away by her mother, the woman spoken of in the prophecy, it was you.”

Gabe pulls in a breath and loosens it out slowly. I notice his hands are trembling now and I so desperately want to touch him.

“That pull I’d felt all along drawing me to you, it was there once again. I thought my heart was about to explode from my chest. I almost ran into your arms then. Life damn it, I wanted to. When I was left alone with you, every single part of me wanted to touch you, even when my common sense was screaming at me to leave. Then you looked at me differently, like I was a man, not a monster that took the baby. When you placed your hand over mine, I was lost… I’d wanted to touch you for so long.”

“How long?” I whisper.

“What?”

“How long have you wanted to touch me?” A look of hunger passes over his features. I remember the way Finch looked at Dani, and I finally understand what it feels to be wanted, desired. Gabe takes another step towards me.

“Since I first laid eyes on you in that place where you deliver life,” he says, pressing his fist against the centre of his chest. “This feeling made me return to you, even when I knew it was hopeless. I’ve watched you for over a century.”

“For a hundred years?” I frown, then remember time passes differently for us both.

“One hundred and fifty-eight, if we’re counting.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Why are you sorry? It may have been torture but being near you has also given me a measure of joy that I haven’t felt in years.”

“Joy?” I ask gently. This time it is me that takes a step closer. The air is crackling with tension, the pull in my own chest taking control of my movements now. Gabe’s lips part as he draws in a breath.

“Yes, joy, and something even more powerful. Something I never thought my blackened heart would feel again.”

“Tell me, Gabe.” I know I shouldn’t be doing this. I know I am being foolish, that I should heed the warning Mihr and Tillan gave me, but I can’t seem to help myself, so I take another step towards him. We are in touching distance now, and my body hums with the attraction I feel. It’s made so much more intense, given the fact I don’t feel at all unwell or near death. The inhibitor is doing its job far too well.

“Love,” he says, dropping his head. “I’m in love with you and it’s killing me knowing I can’t touch you, knowing I want to touch you again, even now when it could lead to your death.”

“Is that what happened to Carlotta?”

Gabe’s head snaps up. “Mihr,” he growls.

“Is it?” I press.

“Yes, I suppose so. Carlotta belonged to someone called Rhain, a powerful member of Clan Lux. She was one of his household. It was a long time ago, before you. She let me take from her, not enough to kill her, but enough to hurt her nonetheless. Enough to take her youth, enough to make her old before her time. Oddly, it was never painful for her. Perhaps that’s why it was easier for me to take? I don’t know. Even when I knew it was wrong, I did it anyway. That is who I am, Fern… Fuck, I shouldn’t be here.” Gabe backs away, his eyes wide with fright.

“Stop!” I say. “Do you feel regret?”

“Of course I do. She didn’t deserve it.” Gabe scrapes a hand over his face. “I am damaged beyond repair, Fern. Life and death are so mixed up that I have no idea which side I belong to anymore. The only thing I do know is that I have loved you from the very moment I saw you singing on the rooftop of the building where you work.”

“You heard me sing?” No one, not even Dani, has heard me sing. It’s something I do in private. Something solely for me.

“Yes. It was so beautiful. I wished I’d sung with you then. Perhaps you’d be my Harmonia now and I’d be able to touch you like Mihr can…” He pauses a moment, catching his breath, which seems to have noticeably quickened the nearer I stand to him.

“I think I would have lost myself to the darkness a long time ago had it not been for you.”

“Gabe…” I reach out to touch his face, my fingertips so close I can feel the heat from his skin. His words should scare me. But I’m not afraid.

I feel alive. This strange kind of sensation slides over my skin the longer I am in his presence. Is this the Marking? Was this how Carlotta felt? Am I falling into the same trap?

My fingers hover over his cheek. I can feel the warmth of his breath flutter against my skin, but when that heat turns to ice my hand falls away, only to be captured by something soft, velvety. I look down to see my hand cupped in his feathers. Their touch ignites something in me and my body thrums with an almost painful desire. I close my eyes, not able to trust myself because I know if I look at Gabe’s haunted face I’ll walk straight into his arms and certain death, and neither of us will have the strength to fight it.

“I am not a good person, Fern. If I were, then I wouldn’t be standing here now knowing that in a few minutes you will be suffering for it. I should walk away for good. I should disavow myself and send someone else to take my place. But I can’t. I wasn’t able to do it back when I first saw you, and I’m not able to do it now. It is taking everything I’ve got not to touch you, kiss you, make love to you. Fuck, I want you so bad my skin burns with it. I burn for you, Fern. You should be scared of me, because I am.”

I waver on my feet. Not because the inhibitor is wearing off, but because his words are having a profound effect on me. For a moment there is nothing but silence. But it isn’t a lonely silence, it’s a loaded silence, a heavy silence, a silence full of possibility and thick with attraction and a desire so heavy I want to succumb to it. I open my eyes and stare at Gabe, ready to face whatever happens next.

“I’m not scared of you. Despite the lives you’ve taken, despite what you’re capable of, I am not afraid of you now. For a long time, I hated your voice even though I appreciated the beauty of it. When you came to take Natasha’s baby boy… I hated you then.”

“Fern, please…” Gabe flinches.

“I’m not finished,” I say, my fingers folding over the feathers pulling away from my hand. “There is truth to the saying that eyes are the windows to the soul. You have the same eyes as that baby. Even though I hate that you took his life, I understand now why you did. I saw what it cost you. What it still costs you. The scars you bear may not be visible, but that doesn’t mean to say they’re not there. Your heart isn’t as black as you believe. It can’t be when you hurt so much.”

Gabe spins on his feet, turning away from me. His whole body is shaking. I step up behind him and place my hands on his folded wings, instinctively knowing that this part of him can’t harm me. I run my fingers over the firm bone covered in soft feathers that arch towards the floor. Gabe lets out a low moan, but he doesn’t move away.

Without thinking a moment more, I press my whole length up against his folded wings, palms and cheek, hips and breasts against silky, soft feathers.

“Fern, please,” Gabe begs. “I am so close to losing control. I don’t have the strength to walk away.”

But I don’t move. I can’t. Gabe is not the only one who is finding it hard to leave. It’s impossible for me to do that now. It’s as though I am bound to him by some invisible force. It wraps around us both, holding us tightly together in our desire and despair, but it’s more than that. There is something happening between us that goes beyond this physical attraction, beyond the Marking. I don’t understand it, but I’m unable to ignore it.

“Fern, you must walk away. I’m begging you. Please, GO!”

“I don’t want to,” I say, running my hands over the firm curve of his wing, my fingertips brushing against Gabe’s back. Even that slightest of touch has my senses overloading.

“I know everyone is saying it’s dangerous. I know what my physical reaction to you would be without the inhibitor. I know what you did to Carlotta, what you took from her, but I can’t walk away, Gabe. I can’t. I don’t want to,” I repeat.

In a rush of air and feathers, Gabe spins on his feet and pulls me against his chest, his hungry mouth finding mine. He kisses me like a desperate man, a man who knows that this may be his one and only chance to appease the darkness in him or stoke it. Either way, I am lost.

My reaction is immediate and overwhelming.

Pain skirts the edges of pleasure as Gabe’s tongue spears my lips, as his teeth clash against mine in his haste to devour me. I return the kiss with equal passion, my hands fisting his hair, my body pressing up against his. I can feel the hard length of his desire and push up against him, rocking my hips against his. Dark spots float behind my closed eyelids and blades of ice run over my skin but it isn’t enough to slice through the connection between us. A tiny voice in the back of my head is mewling in protest, but the voice is weak, drowned out by the sudden erratic thumping of my heart and the pulse of pleasure between my legs. Gabe’s teeth pull against my bottom lip, biting just this side of pain whilst his hand moves to my breast and his thumb rolls over my nipple.

Pleasure sears my skin whilst death creeps up my spine.

The combination is intoxicating, and I am falling into a whirlpool of dancing light edged with black flames. They flicker around us both. He is as burnt by them as I am.

Pleasure and pain.

Light and dark.

Life and death.

Swirling around us, drawing us together, not pushing us apart. I can feel the edges of his own pain slide up against mine.

“Fern…” He calls my name. It sounds so far away but I can still hear the love in it, and the darkness.

This is hurting him as much as it is pleasing him. We both dance along the fine line between what is wrong and what feels right. I’m not sure which side is winning, or if it even matters.

I want his touch. I want his kiss. I want his love. I want his darkness as much as he wants my light.

The link between us, surrounding us, tightens as Gabe’s wings fold around me once more. I feel weightless. My senses are heightened so much so that beyond the cold creep of his touch something else lies in wait. It feels warm, it feels welcoming. With every kiss, with every slide of his lips across mine, with every touch of his hand roaming my body, it feels as though another layer is being revealed. Heat followed by ice followed by warmth, all wrapped up in this Angel of Death who screams life just as loudly.

This isn’t wrong. This doesn’t feel like death at all. I feel different. I feel more.

I feel alive.

Gabe lifts me up, encouraging me to wrap my leg around his waist. I do. He kneels down, his hand finding the roundness of my arse as he yanks me against him. Once, twice he thrusts his hips against me. But this friction, it’s not enough. I pull my lips away from his, yanking at his top. He growls, a low rumble rolling up his throat. Then realising what I want, what I need, he rips his t-shirt off, revealing a muscled chest. I gasp. Tattooed over his right pec is a single, perfectly formed bluebell. I reach up to touch it, my fingers grazing over the petals. Gabe captures my fingers, bringing them to his lips. He draws my middle finger into his mouth, his tongue swirling around and around before his teeth graze against my skin as he pulls it free from his lips. Then, without any warning he tips me backwards, lays me on the floor, grasps my wrists and pulls them above my head before crushing his mouth against mine. White heat explodes behind my eyes and I am completely lost.

Warmth blankets my chest.

Ice-blades slide over my skin.

Flames lick at my belly.

Pleasure and pain fight for my attention. I want it all.

I don’t care if this is death. Let it fucking take me.

“GABE, NO!” Ether shouts, his voice ripping through my skull. It’s so loud, too loud. Gabe is wrenched from my arms. Shock registers on his face as Ether chucks him over his shoulder and rushes with him out of the room.

“FERN!” Gabe roars.

Despite death’s grasp, I get up and stumble after him, the floor tipping beneath my feet. My legs buckle, my vision blurs and a wave of pain so intense crashes over me that I lose my sight for a moment. I expect to hit the ground, but I don’t. Once again, I find myself in Mihr’s arms.

“Fern, Life damn it, why didn’t you listen to me?” he says, picking me up.

But I can’t answer. A searing, burning, life-changing pain rips through my abdomen and up through my chest, a fire so hot its ice-cold flames burn every millimetre of my skin.

The last thing I hear before darkness takes me is Gabe’s broken voice, and he is singing.